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Your Guide to Rumble Strips

If you have already begun researching rumble strips suppliers, you are likely to have already contemplated installing rumble strips at your property. However, you may not have fully assessed whether they would be the correct choice for traffic control and optimum safety. Here we will explore the pros and cons of rumble strips, so you can have all the details you need to make an informed decision.

Rumble Strips Basics

Simply put rumble strips are rows of raised markers that can be placed in the roadway to create noise and vibration when the tyres of a vehicle make contact. The vibration and noise is intended to alert drivers that there is some form of change in the roadway they need to be aware of. Rumble strips are used on highways around the world, with major traffic agencies such as the United States Department of Transport crediting them for reducing serious injuries and fatalities on highways and roadways. For this reason, the strips are considered to be an efficient and safe way to adjust traffic flow to protect drivers and pedestrians in any specific area.

Rumble Strips vs. Speed Bumps

If you are planning the car park layout of your business premises, you may have wondered whether you should use rumble strips or install speed bumps. In order to determine which traffic calming method is best suited to your site, you need to understand the differences between each option.

Speed bumps are considered to be the most versatile form of traffic calming. They are typically used when vehicles are travelling at lower speeds of less than ten kilometres per hour. The steep profile on both sides of the bump creates a barrier which is up to 25 centimetres high. This forces drivers to reduce their speed dramatically or suffer the discomfort of being sharply bounced.

Many people assume that speed bumps and speed humps are the same thing. However, speed humps are actually a flatter form of traffic calming measure. Since they don’t have the same steep sides, it is possible for vehicles to drive over speed humps comfortably even if they only reduce their speed to 30 kilometres per hour. In confined areas such as carparks, this reduced effectiveness makes speed humps impractical. A speed hump may be appropriate for a pedestrian crossing in an urban area, having vehicles driving around your car park at 30 kilometres an hour could still be very dangerous.

Rumble strips tend to make drivers a little more alert that the roadway is changing. While a driver may slow down to go over a speed bump on auto pilot, the vibration and sound of rumble strips immediately alerts the driver that there could be a danger to themselves or pedestrians. This can be vital if you have heavy vehicles such as forklift trucks operating in areas where employees or customers may be driving their cars.

If you are considering installing rumble strips, Perth business owners should speak to us. The Image Bollards team are available to discuss our range of traffic calming measures to help you to determine if rumble strips are the solution best suited to your specific needs.